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Earlier this month, the military seized power in Myanmar. Citing irregularities in their November elections, they detained the de facto head of state, Aung San Suu Kyi, along with other members of her governing party, the National Movement for Democracy. A one-year state of emergency was declared.Like many Americans, peering out from behind the fog of our own transition of power, frightening and inane as it was, I had no idea what to make of these events. Intermittently, I reached for a base of understanding from the few paradoxical fragments I could recall. Aung San Suu Kyi had won a Nobel Peace Prize, I knew. She had also presided over the genocide of the country’s Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya—a genocide which was unique to the extent that it was the first of such atrocities to be incited to a significant degree via Facebook. But my reflection...

Read More:  Interview: Errol Morris Talks His Criterion Releases, Why 'The Unknown Known' Is "Superior" To 'Fog Of War' & More The 2015 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) is partnering with documentary pioneer Errol Morris for this year's Top 10 and retrospective programs.  The filmmaker behind "The Thin Blue Line" has selected 10 documentaries by prominent directors with a reputation for innovation within the documentary genre. The selection includes work by the likes of Chris Marker, Dziga Vertov, Frederick Wiseman and Kazuo Hara. On Friday, 20 November, Morris will elaborate on the choices in his Top 10 at a masterclass chaired by American film theoretician Bill Nichols. Morris' Top 10 program includes: "Bright Leaves" (USA, 2002) by Ross McElwee"Fata Morgana" (Germany, 1971) by Werner Herzog"It Felt Like a Kiss" (UK, 2009) by Adam Curtis"Land Without Bread" (Spain, 1932) by...

It is now time for my complete list of The Suck In Today’s Film Biz. Earlier this week, I’ve dropped some bits on Keyframe and Filmmaker Mag. IndieWire picked it up. There’s so much that is wrong, it is easy to share the wealth. But here is all of those combined lists plus many more. Can’t you hear everyone screaming “Omg, there is so much too fix! It is time we made this really work for ambitious and diverse film once and for all!”? We wish, right?

I have been chronicling the negative in our film industry for sometime now — six years in these type of posts, but my original rant goes back to 1995 for Filmmaker Magazine. Much of what I have stated in years’ passed remains still in need of getting done. Dig in to my past lists and when you combine them you will...

If you think machines have liberated us, think again, says film-maker Adam Curtis. Instead we have lost our vision

It was amateur footage of an event involving an early video game called Pong that gave Adam Curtis the idea for his new documentary series.

In 1991, a computer engineer from California called Loren Carpenter organised a mass experiment in a huge shed. Hundreds of people were each given a paddle, and told nothing. But on a big screen in front of them was projected a game of Pong – a very basic computer game, where a ball is knocked back and forth on a screen, like table tennis. Each half of the audience jointly controlled the bat on their side of the screen; they had to operate it together and, spontaneously and without discussion, they successfully played a game of Pong, whooping and cheering at their collective collaboration.

"It was like a switch went in my head,...